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Site for medical pot has backing in Fitchurg

By Elizabeth Dobbins, edobbins@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
11/16/2016 10:25:16 AM EST

A marijuana bud is seen before harvesting at a rural area near Corvallis, Ore. Fitchburg is one step closer to approving its fourth marijuana cultivation facility after a public hearing Tuesday night. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) (AP FILE PHOTO)

FITCHBURG -- Neighbors weighed in on a proposal for a medical-marijuana cultivation and processing facility at a Planning Board public hearing Tuesday night.

Happy Valley Ventures MA, Inc., hopes to open the facility in an existing 60,000-square-foot building on 25 Newport St., and neighbors had several suggestions but few complaints.

"I believe we are happy to support this use," said Brian Rehrie, a representative from the management company of a neighboring strip mall.

Rehrie also suggested an adjustment to the use of an easement to access the facility.

The board asked Happy Valley Ventures representatives to return with more complete plans, such as a detailed security design, but were generally positive.

"Personally, I don't see anything wrong with this as long as we straighten it out," Planning Board member Andrew Van Hazinga said.

Company founder Michael Reardon and Andrea Nuciforo, an attorney for Happy Valley Ventures MA, said the facility would create 10 to 15 jobs.

Reardon said the permit the business is applying for only allows the facility to grow medical marijuana and that no marijuana will be sold at the facilities. All of the product will be sold at Happy Valley Ventures dispensaries in East Boston, Amherst and Gloucester.

Whether the facility will ever be allowed to grow recreational marijuana depends on state regulations, which will be developed during the first three months of 2017, according to Nuciforo.

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To grow medical marijuana, Reardon said Happy Valley Ventures will only need about 8,000 square feet, but currently the company is "leaning toward" equipping the entire building for construction. If the facility is eventually approved to grow recreational marijuana, Reardon said in five years the facility could employ close to 50 employees and produce 8,000 pounds of marijuana a year.

Happy Valley Ventures MA is a Newton-based nonprofit company, but the setup of the lease agreement means the city will still receive commercial taxes from the property.

Nuciforo said the facility will have strict security, barring public access, and use a vault to secure all products, which include drinks, salves, and smokable and edible cannabis. The company will pay employees using a typical payroll system and not cash.

Contrary to local ordinances, the facility would be less than 300 feet from two places where minors gather, a dance studio and a karate studio. Happy Valley Ventures MA is seeking an exemption from the board.

Rehrie said he does not expect the businesses, both tenants in the building he represents, to have an issue with the proposed use.

If approved, the cultivation facility would be the city's fourth. The Massachusetts Patient Foundation received official approval from the board to grow marijuana at 99 Development Road, likely for a dispensary in Arlington, in August. The Cardiac Arrhythmia Syndromes Foundation gained approval in August for a growing facility on 1 Oak Hill Road. Garden Remedies obtained permission from the Building Department in 2015, before the bylaw requiring the facilities to request a special permit went into effect. The company received the approval to open a growing facility on Airport Road in 2015.

Reardon said he plans to bring the proposal back to the board in January and start renovations, which will take six months, immediately if the plan is approved.

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